Meal Supplements for Weight Loss

If you are interested in adding supplements to your weight loss regime, it can be difficult to figure out where to begin. Among all of the weight loss supplements and meal replacement supplements you will find drinks, pills, shakes and even so-called "natural remedies." Each is designed differently to assist you in reaching your weight-loss goals, so it's worth looking at what your needs are and which ones might best meet your needs.

Meal Replacement Supplements

• Meal replacement supplements such as Boost or Ensure are not designed to help you lose weight. In fact, these products were created to provide a great deal of calories and nutrition for those who have unhealthy or difficult to manage eating practices, such as those suffering from an illness who may otherwise fall into malnutrition. These high-calorie supplements are created to give such people what their bodies need without forcing them to intake a great quantity of food.

  Other meal replacement supplements, specifically boasting to help with weight loss such as Slim Fast shakes or bars are designed to give the body an appropriate amount of calories and nutrition without going overboard. These drinks and nutritional bars are ideal for people who are too busy to cook, prepare or seek out and purchase healthy meals. All in all however, a diet balanced in fruits, vegetables, protein and starch is far more nutritious and satisfying than these replacement alternatives.

Weight Loss Pills and Teas

• Pills and extracts designed to help you lose weight are usually focused on a small element that can provide benefits to your overall weight loss routine. Appetite suppressants, for example, make it easier for you to make wise choices and control portions, fat burners claim to help the body more readily tap into its fat stores, and so on...Many of these over-the-counter drugs come with unsubstantiated claims and promises and a long laundry list of negative side effects.

  It is important that you not only research a diet pill or drink before deciding to try it, but also check with your doctor to ensure that it will not decrease the effectiveness of any other medications you are currently taking.

"Natural" Weight Loss Supplements

• There are many plans, cleanses and diets that involve using "natural" items such as juices and fruits to edit or supplement your daily intake of foods. These cleanses and diets are full of promises to "cleanse" your body of toxins and waste and/or to help control your calorie or nutritional intake.

  All in all, no there are very few supplements that can compare to the consistent intake of healthy and nutritious foods in the proper portions. Your body is naturally designed to derive vitamins and minerals from whole foods in order to work at peak performance.